SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Spencer Zwick, who remains one of Mitt Romney’s closest advisers after leading his massive fundraising operation in the 2012 presidential race, is courting a challenger to U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.
Zwick said he’s trying to get Provo business executive Alex Dunn to take on Lee in the 2016 Republican primary, and would help Dunn if he enters the race.
Zwick said he thinks Lee is “a very smart guy,” but the senator’s role in the 2013 federal government shutdown over President Barack Obama’s health care law hurt the GOP.
“Watching that didn’t make me proud to have him associated with a party I love and believe needs to be growing the tent and not shrinking. … I hope Alex will consider getting in the race,” he told the Deseret News (https://bit.ly/1PBWNQ2 ).
Dunn, president of the home automation services company Vivint Inc. and a graduate of Brigham Young University, confirmed he’s considering a run against the first-term senator.
“I’ve been having discussions with a group of people who are encouraging me to run for Senate,” Dunn said in a statement.
Lee’s chief of staff, Boyd Matheson, said the senator is focused on his agenda, not his re-election.
“He is so focused on an agenda that is helping Utah families that he is not concerned and not looking at who might be thinking about running against him,” Matheson said.
Zwick, a Boston-based venture capitalist, said he won’t “stand in the way” if Lee becomes the Republican nominee but “there are people in Utah who could do a better job representing the views of the whole party, and state for that matter, and not just one wing of the party.”
Matthew Burbank, a political science professor at the University of Utah, said Lee’s campaign has “made some real progress” in keeping viable Republican candidates such as former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Romney’s son Josh out of the race. But he said there is still some dissatisfaction within the GOP over Lee.
“What you see going on here is still ongoing unhappiness within Republican ranks,” Burbank said.
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Information from: Deseret News, https://www.deseretnews.com
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